Maureen Gitata

About

Growing up in Nyahururu, Kenya, Maureen Gitata knew that a scholarship was probably the only way she’d be able to go to college. Many in her community, including her parents, are part-time subsistence farmers, growing enough food to feed their families with a little left over to sell.

“I saw my parents struggle to put my siblings and me through primary and high school,” Gitata says. “I knew I’d need a scholarship if I wanted to further my education.”

So she set about earning one. Gitata got a scholarship to study economics at St. Lawrence University in New York, and after working in finance in Boston, Massachusetts for a year, arrived at UBC in 2015 as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar.

The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at UBC provides academically talented yet economically disadvantaged young people from Sub-Saharan Africa access to quality and relevant university education who are interested in moving back and contributing to economic progress in their countries. Gitata enrolled in our Masters of Food and Resource Economics (MFRE) program, a one-year course-based professional master’s degree geared towards graduates and professionals looking to sharpen their skill-sets with more advanced economics and real world applications.

“The MFRE’s focus on applied economics, policy, and agribusiness management was very well aligned with my career goals,” she said. “I wanted to gain advanced studies in economics and specialize in a field relevant to international development, and it’s provided me with a wide range of skills and knowledge.”

In Kenya, agriculture contributes 30% of the country’s GDP. Through the MFRE program, Gitata learned the economics of the agricultural sector, and the policies that are necessary to uplift the agricultural sector and economy of Kenya, as well as other developing countries that rely on agriculture as the key driver of economic growth. After graduation, Gitata returned to Kenya, where she accepted a consultant position with Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a strategy consulting firm focused on development.

About

Animal Welfare Alumna Helping to Set Standards for Whole Foods Market

Frances Flower never dreamed a career in animal welfare would one day lead her to Texas and a job in a natural foods supermarket. But shortly after completing her PhD in our Animal Welfare program in 2006, the British-born Flower was recruited by Whole Foods Market. She moved to Austin, where the grocery chain’s head office is located, and has spent the past nine years running their animal welfare program.

It all started with a love for animals.

“I loved studying animal behaviour, why animals do what they do,” Flower said. While working on a Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare at the University of Edinburgh in the 1990s, she came across an ad for a research project led by UBC Animal Welfare Professor Dan Weary. Flower jumped on the opportunity to be part of the project, which was conducted at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre, a decision that led her to pursue her PhD in our Animal Welfare program.

“The UBC Animal Welfare program was a great experience,” she said. “The researchers are very well respected in the animal welfare world and we were exposed to a whole spectrum of animal welfare issues.”

Flower’s experience working with dairy cows at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre prepared her well for her current role at Whole Foods; as a Livestock Associate, she works with 2,700 farms and ranches across North America to ensure that producers meet the company’s strict animal welfare standards. That standard requires that all the farms and ranches that supply the grocery chain with pig, chicken and beef must be third-party inspected and certified to Global Animal Partnership’s (GAP) 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Program. The 5-step program rates how pigs, chickens, turkeys, and cattle are raised for meat.

“Consumers want to know how animals are raised,” she said, adding that the rating system has impacted the welfare of 290 million farm animals in the U.S. and Canada. “We’re dedicated to helping our customers make informed choices about the food they eat.”

About

Julie Wilson is uncovering innovative approaches to stormwater management, even in your own backyard

As the realities of climate change set in, cities need to pay attention to stormwater management if they want to avoid a flooding crisis, says Julie Wilson, Academic Coordinator for our Masters of Land and Water Systems program.

Why is stormwater management important for cities?

Urban centres are projected to grow in many parts of the world. They consume large amounts of resources and generate a lot of pollution. Stormwater management can help mitigate some of the environmental impacts. When rain falls onto the ground, especially in cities, the water can’t be absorbed back into the soil. Water that falls on impervious surfaces, like roads and parking lots, creates stormwater runoff, which is a phenomenon we don’t typically see in natural landscapes. During heavy rain events, excess stormwater can lead to flooding, which can have devastating consequences, both environmentally and financially, like in Toronto last July. Stormwater can also pick up oil and grease before going down a storm drain, where it eventually discharges into an ocean, river or lake, depending on where you are. This can have an adverse effect on habitat for fish and other organisms.

What are some ways people can help manage stormwater at home?

The driveway and the roof are the main sources of run-off to your stormwater system in a single-family home. One way to better manage stormwater is to detach your gutter’s downspout that connects to the storm sewer and replace it with a splash block or gutter chain. This allows water to run down and infiltrate into the soil on your property. Some homeowners create rain gardens below gutter chains, turning them into a water feature. It’s both functional and decorative. Replacing a large asphalt driveway with interlocking paving stones or pervious pavement will also help retain rainwater on your property. Changes on an individual property will not significantly reduce urban flooding, but multiply these small changes across an entire urban watershed and the cumulative effects can be considerable.

Why should the average person know about stormwater management?

Innovative stormwater designs can often be overlooked as we wouldn’t necessarily take notice of them in our everyday lives. But having awareness about these technologies can empower people to think about new developments being built in and around their communities, and ask whether these techniques are being implemented or not. Being knowledgeable about stormwater management makes us think about where we live a lot differently, which hopefully spurs people’s desires to be more environmentally conscious.